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after the game was cancelled due to weather at the Servpro First Responder Bowl at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas on Wednesday, December 26, 2018. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect comment from ESPN and SMU.

The First Responder Bowl has a temporary new home.

The maligned postseason college football game will move to SMU's Ford Stadium, ESPN announced Thursday afternoon. The game, which is owned and operated by the TV network, will take place at 11:30 a.m. on Dec. 30.

According to an ESPN spokesperson, the game was moved because of a conflict at the Cotton Bowl, where the event was held since its inception in 2011. The NHL's Winter Classic, the league's annual outdoor hockey game, will take place on Jan. 1 at the historic venue when the Dallas Stars face the Nashville Predators.

Once the football game needed a new venue, SMU athletic director Rick Hart said he started to have conversations with ESPN and the Dallas Sports Commission about using Ford Stadium as this year's site.

"It came together over time, but always I think from the beginning with the intent that we would help if that was desired," Hart said.

This isn't the first time SMU has hosted a postseason game. In 2010, SMU hosted the Armed Forces Bowl while TCU's Amon G. Carter underwent stadium renovations. SMU also hosted the game in 2011 when Brigham Young clashed with Tulsa. The game returned to Fort Worth in 2012.

The same scenario is in play for the First Responder Bowl, Hart said. The plan is to move the postseason game back to Fair Park after next year.

"If there's any intention of it being anything other than that, that's not anything we have discussed," Hart said.

It's unclear how the move will affect funding or the bowl game's viability moving forward. In 2018, Dallas City Council approved a $300,000 payment to be paid over a two-year period to keep the game at the Cotton Bowl, as The Dallas Morning News' Robert Wilonsky reported.

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The bowl game's attendance has suffered. In 2017, city officials said roughly 9,300 fans attended the game between Utah and West Virginia.

That number is a little more than 10 percent of the stadium's capacity of 92,000. SMU's Ford Stadium can hold up to 32,000.

The bowl game was originally called the Heart of Dallas Bowl but underwent a rebranding last season amid the struggles to produce funding to keep the game at Fair Park. The city council approved the subsidy last September following a seven-month debate over the topic.

In December, Boston College and Boise State were set to square off before officials canceled the game following a lengthy weather delay.

The First Responder Bowl will be one of several bowl games to be played in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this winter.

The Frisco Bowl is set for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff on Dec. 20 at Toyota Stadium. The Armed Forces Bowl is slated for 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 4 in Fort Worth.

The Cotton Bowl, the area's longest-running bowl game, will be at 11 a.m. on Dec. 28 at AT&T Stadium.